Guaranteed Success
by lakergirl4life
Summary: Mike's final gift from his secret santa isn't at all what he was expecting. Mike centric but features the whole house.


**A/N: I find it a lot easier to set lighter fics during/after season 1...so that's why this is set for last year instead of this one. Happy Holidays Everyone! **

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><p><strong>December 2013<strong>

Charlie peered over Mike's shoulder as reached inside the gift bag. Mike looked up, confused as he pulled out his final secret santa gift. "Mistletoe?" He couldn't stop his eyes from going straight to Paige despite knowing that she shopped for Jakes. If this meant what he hoped it meant, then maybe Paige was ready to move things to the next level.

Paige nervously laughed, running her hand through her hair, "Don't look at me, Mike. I had Chocolate Jesus over there."

Jakes victoriously held up a chocolate shaped Jesus, "I don't even want to know where you found this."

Paige proudly smiled. "What can I say? I'm a great shopper."

"So..." Mike's voice trailed off and he looked at Charlie. She and Briggs were back together which made this gift even more awkward if it was from her. "Umm - "

Charlie leaned over and kissed his cheek, "Try again, lover boy."

Mike slowly looked around the table and when he looked at Briggs the agent raised his hand. He closed his eyes for a few seconds as he remembered that each gift he received from his secret santa included Hershey's Kisses and he was starting to think those kisses symbolized more than chocolate. "Briggs is there, uhh, is there something you're trying to tell me?" Mike asked, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. He reached for his beer to take a drink. The bottle was at least half-way full, but he felt like he was going to need another soon.

"Mike, you're a good looking guy. I can't help but notice that you've hit a dry spell these past few months," Briggs began.

He stared at Briggs in disbelief for a few seconds, before speaking. "Yeah, I - "

"I hope you two don't want to be left alone, because there's no way in hell, I'm missing this!" Johnny quickly motioned to their waitress to bring them another round of drinks.

Mike smacked Johnny's arm. "No, we don't want to be alone." He quickly turned to Briggs, slightly panicked, "You don't - that's not what this is about, is it? Because - "

"Relax, Mike. You've got those pretty blue eyes, but I'm partial to brown," Briggs said, motioning to Charlie. "But as I was saying, I couldn't help but notice that you've been going through a dry spell. It's the holidays, people are lonely. My man, mistletoe is a great ice-breaker. _Guaranteed _success."

Mike nodded slowly, relieved to have avoided what could've been a really uncomfortable situation. Because trying to tell your commanding officer that you weren't into him in front of your roommates _and_ his girlfriend while at the bar exchanging secret santa gifts was definitely not covered in the FBI manual. "You know, I'm good. Thanks for this, but with work being so busy, it's probably best I fly solo for the holidays. It's awkward to start dating someone right before Christmas. Do I get her a gift or not? What's an appropriate gift? I think for the New Year, my resolution will be to meet someone, but for now - " Mike cut himself off once he realized he was rambling.

"Isn't that our usual waitress? Melanie?" Charlie asked, nodding towards the other end of the bar. "She's not working tonight. Mike, you should go test out that mistletoe."

"Yeah, go test it out Mike," Paige encouraged, finishing her beer and reaching for the one their waitress just dropped off. "Break out of your dry spell."

Although Paige was smiling at him, there was nothing sweet about her smile. It was as if she was daring him to make a move on the waitress. But if he valued his life or certain body parts, it would be in his best interests to stay seated.

"Shouldn't we finish exchanging gifts? Briggs, don't you want to open yours?" Mike said, trying to steer everyone's focus from the mistletoe and back towards revealing everyone's Secret Santa.

"She's cute Mikey," Johnny said. "Very friendly."

"She's not really my type," Mike said, trying to come up with any excuse to end this conversation. "I - we come here all the time. I don't want to have lie to her and if things get awkward, I'll still have to see her." That was a good reason. No one could argue with that.

"Didn't she give you a free beer last time we were out?" Jakes asked.

"What? No!" Mike quickly exclaimed, doing his best to ignore the raised eyebrow that Paige gave him. "We were buying rounds, I'm sure one of the drink orders got confused. Wasn't that during happy hour? I'm sure there was a special."

"Are you calling dibs Mikey?" Johnny asked. "Because if not, I'd love to put that mistletoe to use."

"Help yourself," Mike said, relieved. He eagerly tossed it across the table to Johnny.

Johnny easily caught the mistletoe and he wandered over to Melanie. Everyone watched with interest as he spoke to her for a few moments, no doubt waiting to see if the mistletoe worked or if she'd shoot him down. Surprisingly, nothing happened between the pair. Johnny didn't try to kiss her. And she didn't slap him. Losing interest, he turned to Briggs, "Thanks?"

Briggs laughed, "You should've seen your face when you thought I was into you."

"Well, yeah..." his voice trailed off, not really knowing what to say. "Let's see what everyone else got."

Mike felt someone tapping on his shoulder and he looked up to see Melanie holding mistletoe over him as Johnny pulled up a chair for her.

"Mike, right?"

"Am I a great wingman or what?" Johnny asked, sitting down next to Paige and putting his arm around her.

"Yeah, you're the best," Paige said, pushing his arm off her.

"Look, Melanie? I'm not sure what my friend told you but, I'm not looking to - for a - to meet anyone new right now."

"He said you'd say that. Well, I think you're cute and..." her voice trailed off as she held the mistletoe over him, expectantly waiting.

Mike laughed nervously, scooting to the edge of his chair trying to put as much distance between them as possible. "Melanie, look - you're a beautiful woman - "

"Levi, we're talking about one kiss," Jakes said.

"A harmless kiss," Charlie said. "Go for it."

"Excuse my friend here, he's shy," Briggs added.

"Mikey, come on," Johnny said.

One by one, his roommates encouraged him to make a move but one remained silent. Paige's lips were pressed tightly into a smile and if she gripped her beer bottle any tighter, he suspected she'd break it. His eyes met Paige's, silently pleading with her to intervene. Clearly, she didn't want him to kiss the other woman but unless she told him not to, he'd probably cave to the peer pressure. He felt a hand on his face and he froze when he saw Melanie smiling at him as she started leaning closer. He slowly backed away from her only to feel Paige's hand on the back of his neck, turning him towards her. Leaning down, Paige kissed him. Hard. This wasn't some pity kiss to stop him from awkwardly kissing their regular waitress. She was claiming him. Following her lead, he cupped her face in his hand as he passionately returned her kiss.

This really wasn't how they planned to let their roommates know about them. They had been sleeping together for a few weeks, but were still figuring things out. Paige wanted to keep things quiet a little while longer, but he didn't see what the big deal was. Everyone was already in their business and that was _before_ they started sleeping together. This whole scene could've been avoided if everyone knew.

Paige pulled back slightly, possessively rubbing her thumb over his lower lip. Glaring at her roommates, she focused her gaze on Melanie before cooly smiling at her. "He's taken."

"Finally!" Charlie exclaimed as Briggs pounded his hand on the table.

"Melanie, thank you for your assistance. As promised, your next round is on me," Johnny said.

Jakes slapped Johnny on the back, "Good work."

"Thanks, Johnny." Melanie offered a small wave and headed back to the bar area.

"You set us up," Mike said, as all the pieces started falling into place. Why the get together Paige arranged at the house got moved to The Drop at the last minute. Johnny insisting that he needed to date more, trying to introduce him to every woman they encountered. His final secret santa gift being mistletoe - from a male roommate. Everything was designed to make Paige jealous so she would react or he would fess up. Because if this had played out the other way around. Paige probably would've just kissed some guy and he would've sat there fuming.

"How long were you two planning to sneak around?" Briggs asked.

Paige moved to sit in the chair next to Mike, leaning into him when he put his arm around her. Their eyes met for a moment and Paige pressed her lips over his, silencing his laugh. That was the one thing they had argued about since getting together.

Paige shrugged, "Until we got caught."

"I don't want to know what that means," Jakes said.

"Probably not," Mike said.

Paige swatted his arm, "Mike! You're not supposed - "

Mike quieted her with a kiss, "Deny, remember?" Mike whispered. There had been more than a few times that someone had almost walked in on them, leaving one of them hiding and the other one flustered as they tried to clear out the room. Which was exactly what happened this morning when Paige cornered him in the wardrobe room. They were so caught up in each other, they didn't hear Jakes in the hall until he called out looking for Johnny. Paige shoved him the closet and went in the hall to run interference.

"What are you two whispering about?" Johnny asked.

"Nothing," Paige and Mike said in unison.

"This morning? The wardrobe room?" Jakes asked. "You two..."

He gave Jakes a guilty smile and before kissing Paige. "See, this is nice. Being in public. Together."

Paige nodded and reached for his hand. "So how long have you guys been planning _this_? And do you really have nothing better to do than wonder about our sex life?"

"It was just a matter of time," Charlie said. "We all knew it would happen eventually."

"You stopped looking at guys and spent every night at home. Mike turned down Johnny every time he offered to hook him up with someone," Briggs said.

"Maybe that's because Johnny's a bad wingman," Mike said.

"I'm an excellent wingman. Ask Jakes. Just last month, I introduced him to this model," Johnny defensively said.

"And she turned out to be engaged," Jakes said. "But back to Mike and Paige not being as sneaky as they thought they were. Somebody stopped going for a run every morning at 6am."

"A lot of late nights?" Briggs suggestively asked.

Paige elbowed Mike, silently reminding him that _this_ was why she wanted to keep things between them. "Something like that," Mike said. "Shouldn't we finish up gifts? Briggs?"

"We'll get to him in a minute. I want to give Paige her gift," Charlie interrupted.

Paige held out her hands, excitedly taking the bag from Charlie's hands. She examined the bag carefully. Turning it around a few times and trying to see how heavy it was. She peeked inside the bag and pushed aside the tissue paper before bursting out laughing.

Mike tried to look inside the bag and she quickly closed it.

"Seriously?" Paige asked.

Charlie nodded, "One way or another, we were getting a confession out of you two."

"What's in the bag Paige?" Briggs asked.

"Something of an electronic nature?" Johnny asked. "In case you and Mike get into a fight, you won't have to worry about lonely nights. Or if Mikey can't _rise_ to the occasion, it's okay if you get a little assistance."

Charlie and Paige looked at each other and started laughing. "An electronic nature, Johnny? Really?" Charlie asked. "Real mature."

"Hold on, just to be clear, I've _never_ had any sort of performance issues," Mike interjected. He looked at Paige for a few seconds and she nodded.

"Definitely no complaints here," Paige said.

"And?" Mike prompted.

Paige laughed before lightly kissing him, "No assistance needed. Let me assure everyone here that Agent Warren definitely gets the job done. Every time." Paige reached in the bag and pulled out a sprig of mistletoe identical to the one Briggs had given Mike. She held it over her head and smiled.

"See, Mike. I told you. Guaranteed success."

Laughing, he brushed his lips over Paige's, content to be able to kiss her freely. Not have to worry about someone catching them. Not have to pretend that when he saw her he didn't want her. He groaned when Paige deepened their kiss. She dragged her lips along his jaw so she could kiss his ear.

"Get us out of here and I'll show you what else Charlie gave me," Paige whispered before her lips settled on his neck.

He pulled back slightly and she nodded. As much as he wanted to grab her hand and drag her out of here, he turned to the rest of the group. "Let's get back to gifts. Briggs, you're up."

THE END


End file.
